The Patriot system is one that has been around for close to 20 years. It was originally designed to shoot down enemy aircraft by launching into the general area of the aircraft, then exploding in front of it, showering the aircraft, and most importantly the engines with shrapnel. During Desert Storm, Iraq launched a series of SCUD missiles at Saudi Arabia with the intent of killing or hurting coalition forces. It was purely by accident that the Patriot system detected the incoming SCUDS and shot them down, although not 100% of them were shot down, but again, this was an anti-aircraft weapon, not anti missile. Well the folks at Raytheon who built the system went right to work to improve it for anti-missile capabilities.( http://www.raytheon.com/businesses/rids/businesses/patriot/)
The Missile Defense System that #43 wanted to build was entirely new and land based to prevent the Russian hoard from attacking Europe and/or the US, at a cost of 30.2 billion. The intent is that if Russia launches nukes at the US or any of our allies, we can intercept them from Europe, basically shooting them down before they leave Russian airspace (hopefully). Why build a system that is going to cost billions when we can use what we already have? On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 1:59 PM, Sam <[email protected]> wrote: > > Teach me ;) > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:304498 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
